Selling Out a Retreat in Minutes: Niching Down to Build Demand

[upbeat music] Welcome to Brand and Banter, where bold ideas meet brilliant execution.

I'm Amanda Schuman, a marketing strategist and founder of a million-dollar agency.

This podcast isn't just about marketing.

It's about scratching that itch all of us marketers feel when we see a campaign that leaves us asking, "How did they pull that off?" I created Brand and Banter to sit down with the marketing minds I admire most, dig deeper than the headlines, and ask the burning questions that news articles just wouldn't answer.

From scrapped pitches that became million-dollar ideas, to the late-night brainstorms that turned the tide, we're pulling back the curtain to reveal what really happens behind the brands that make us stop, think, and feel.

Whether you are a marketer hunting for that aha idea, a business owner wanting to break the marketing mold, or just a brand enthusiast who saves packaging because it's too pretty to toss, this podcast is your backstage pass to the strategies that defined marketing success.

Pour a drink, get comfortable, and let's dive into the banter behind the brands that inspire us.

This is Brand and Banter.

Welcome back to the Brand and Banter podcast.

I'm your host, Amanda Schuman, and today I am joined by Amanda Reed.

She's a modern calligrapher, live event engraver, and founder of Amanda Reed Designs, a luxury creative studio based in Austin, Texas.

What started as a self-care hobby of practicing calligraphy in 2015 has now become a business in which she specializes in transforming events through intentional high-end personalization for brands, planners, and private clients.

Her on-site engraving and calligraphy has been featured at experiences for Louis Vuitton, Google, South by Southwest, Laura Mercier, Kendra Scott, and many, many more.

Beyond her event work, Amanda's also the host of the Luxury Calligrapher Retreat, which is an immersive experience for creatives that blend hands-on education, community, and elevated artistry, and that's what we're going to be talking about today.

I think as founders, we often think growth comes from casting a net really wide, and Amanda's retreat proves the exact opposite.

So we're gonna be talking about how she sells out this retreat, and how she plans it.

And so if you are thinking about hosting an event, either small scale up to large scale, this is really going to be a great episode for you to actually understand what happens when a founder commits to a specific niche and builds experiences for that audience instead of chasing everyone.

Before we get into the episode, though, I do want to remind you of the partner publication that goes along with the podcast called Brand and Banter on Substack as well.

You can go to Substack and search Brand and Banter, or you can type in theamandaschuman.substack.com and find a catalog of articles there.

Sometimes it's me going behind the scenes and how I am implementing other people's advice into my business.

Sometimes we're doing Q&A with podcast guests.

You just never know what you're gonna get, but it is a partner publication to the podcast to help you go deeper and really see meaningful difference in your business.

And so without further ado, here's my conversation with Amanda Reed.

[upbeat music] Welcome to Brand and Banter, where bold ideas meet brilliant execution.

I'm Amanda Schuman, a marketing strategist and founder of a million-dollar agency.

This podcast isn't just about marketing.

It's about scratching that itch all of us marketers feel when we see a campaign that leaves us asking, "How did they pull that off?" I created Brand and Banter to sit down with the marketing minds I admire most, dig deeper than the headlines, and ask the burning questions that news articles just wouldn't answer.

From scrapped pitches that became million-dollar ideas, to the late-night brainstorms that turned the tide, we're pulling back the curtain to reveal what really happens behind the brands that make us stop, think, and feel.

Whether you are a marketer hunting for that aha idea, a business owner wanting to break the marketing mold, or just a brand enthusiast who saves packaging because it's too pretty to toss, this podcast is your backstage pass to the strategies that defined marketing success.

Pour a drink, get comfortable, and let's dive into the banter behind the brands that inspire us.

This is Brand and Banter.

Welcome back to the Brand and Banter podcast.

I'm your host, Amanda Schuman, and today I am joined by Amanda Reed.

She's a modern calligrapher, live event engraver, and founder of Amanda Reed Designs, a luxury creative studio based in Austin, Texas.

What started as a self-care hobby of practicing calligraphy in 2015 has now become a business in which she specializes in transforming events through intentional high-end personalization for brands, planners, and private clients.

Her on-site engraving and calligraphy has been featured at experiences for Louis Vuitton, Google, South by Southwest, Laura Mercier, Kendra Scott, and many, many more.

Beyond her event work, Amanda's also the host of the Luxury Calligrapher Retreat, which is an immersive experience for creatives that blend hands-on education, community, and elevated artistry, and that's what we're going to be talking about today.

I think as founders, we often think growth comes from casting a net really wide, and Amanda's retreat proves the exact opposite.

So we're gonna be talking about how she sells out this retreat, and how she plans it.

And so if you are thinking about hosting an event, either small scale up to large scale, this is really going to be a great episode for you to actually understand what happens when a founder commits to a specific niche and builds experiences for that audience instead of chasing everyone.

Before we get into the episode, though, I do want to remind you of the partner publication that goes along with the podcast called Brand and Banter on Substack as well.

You can go to Substack and search Brand and Banter, or you can type in theamandaschuman.substack.com and find a catalog of articles there.

Sometimes it's me going behind the scenes and how I am implementing other people's advice into my business.

Sometimes we're doing Q&A with podcast guests.

You just never know what you're gonna get, but it is a partner publication to the podcast to help you go deeper and really see meaningful difference in your business.

And so without further ado, here's my conversation with Amanda Reed.